Special Program Root Tag

Employers and employees at small businesses don't see eye to eye when it comes to 401(k)s, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by ShareBuilder Advisors, a 401(k) administrator that specializes in serving small companies.

Chief compliance officers should make the valuation of distressed securities their No. 1 priority, Andrew J. Donohue, director of the division of investment management at the Securities and Exchange Commission advised at last week's national CCOutreach meeting, the agency's educational program for CCOs.

Despite signs that mutual funds and hedge funds are converging, long-only mutual funds are slackers compared to hedge funds when it comes to using external research.

The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to recognize the growing influence of the Internet on the mutual fund industry by giving investors greater access to financial information online.

Let's hope Social Security remains a fixture on the American scene. There are too many senior citizens dependent on it, and with $1 million seeming to be the magic retirement savings goal, a vast majority are going to fall far short of that. In fact, some experts have said that even wealthy investors will be at least partially dependent on Social Security.

Legg Expects to Announce New Chief Executive Soon; Says Search is Progressing

After Two Month Suspension, China Again Approving Mutual Funds

DTCC's Managed Account Service Ready to Roll

NEW YORK-While the subprime crisis battered the stock market in the third quarter and the fourth quarter isn't expected to be any better, mutual fund portfolio managers and analysts believe the credit market turmoil will blow over. They spoke earlier this month at a media conference co-sponsored by Lipper and SunStar.

Ron Baron, manager of the Baron Partners Fund, believes the government will invest a considerable amount of money in improving and updating infrastructure throughout the United States, and is moving his money into construction stocks ahead of this development, The Seattle Times reports.

Bruce Bent, who came out with the first money market fund in 1970, thinks money market funds that invested in subprime-linked collateralized debt obligations and other risky instruments have been negligent in their duties to investors, Reuters reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday distributed $31.5 million to more than 150,000 MFS Investments investors whose holdings were negatively impacted by market timing in the funds.

The mortgage fallout in the U.S. is beginning to take its toll on international markets, including the emerging markets that have delivered such stellar returns of late, Barron’s Online reports. That’s because investors are moving away from any investment they perceive as carrying risk.

It may sound illogical for mutual fund portfolio managers to pour millions of dollars into a nation with an inflation rate of 8,000% and a food shortage, but that is exactly what is happening in Zimbabwe, where foreign direct investment totaled $103 million in 2005, up remarkably from $4 million two years earlier, The Wall Street Journal reports.

It’s not just the government, through Social Security, that is responsible for helping Americans prepare for retirement, according to a Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll of 2,242 adults last month. Employers have a duty, too, and it’s not just through 401(k) plans. Even though many employers are doing away with pension plans, 38% believe the government should require employers to set aside more money for pension plans.

Despite the impact the subprime crisis has immediately had on mortgage and other financial services companies—with the financial services sector of the S&P 500 Index declining nearly 22%—U.S. equities, particularly growth stocks, are in a strong position, according to the latest market commentary from Fred Alger.

In the past year, the number of employers offering either a target-date fund, automatic 401(k) enrollment or automatic contribution rate increases has tripled, with more than 30,000 employers of the 38,600 that The Principal serves using at least one of the three.

Target-date funds from T. Rowe Price, Principal Investors and Fidelity are the best, according to analysis of target-date funds by Lipper. On the other hand, those from Wells Fargo, MassMutual and NestEgg were on the bottom.

Gross domestic product in the United States will advance by a mere 1.5% in the final quarter of the year, according to a survey of economists by the National Association for Business Economics.

The market share of Fidelity, Vanguard and American Funds in the mutual fund industry continues to expand, with the three giants’ market share now at 37.5%, up from 30% 10 years ago, according to Financial Research Corp.